“It's good you could help us," said [Priestess Jelthea], tears in her eyes. “It's a suicide mission, and you chose to help us. You are a true hero."

Gearme ignored the npc as he picked a wooden section of wall with one hand, playing with it as he tried to figure out the limitations of how he could set it down.

Chan Si's party was in the middle of a large graveyard which roiled with mist. Out in the mist, various sounds could be heard such as the splashing of blood, screams of the dying, cawing crows, and other such spooky sfx. In short, it was a highly overwrought area that had more in common with a low budget horror film than anything actually scary.

When the game began, the area was much scarier, but too many players complained and its realism was nerfed.

With Chan Si's party was an encampment of fifty NPCs. Half were haggard looking mercenaries, and the other half were priests and priestesses of the demigoddess [Liviast], who ruled over the domain of life and hated the undead.

This was the area for the quest Plague of Undeath, which would unlock the [Corpse Launcher] subclass for Ballistas. It would give the class a higher mana multiplier and a few [Skills] that used mana.

The key [Skill] added by the subclass was [Corrupted Mass], which was a double damage attack that, if it killed an enemy, would temporarily reanimate them as a minion for the Ballista! Plus, these reanimated minions actually retained the statistics of the killed enemy, although most of their [Skills], including every [Skill] that wasn't a passive, would be removed.

Corrupted Mass allowed the Ballista to contribute much more to combat situations by killing key enemies.

As a Rare subclass there was much more to it than Corrupted Mass, but Corrupted Mass could not be beat for the sheer and simple advantage it provided. In effect, it was a damage increase, DPS increase, resource optimizer, battlefield control, and defensive boost all in one!

But to get it, one had to complete the Plague of Undeath quest, which was not an easy thing to do.

It required defending the encampment, or more specifically the NPCs in the encampment.

The encampment could be built to any specification using the materials given to the the quest taker in Plague of Undeath.

With some exceptions, so long as there was room for the undead to enter the encampment, they would not destroy any parts.

It was effectively a tower defense quest, starring the Ballista.

The issue with the quest was the sheer number of undead. Even if the Ballista created a narrow passage for them, they would ceaselessly advanced through faster than the Ballista could kill them.

Body blocking the passage with a tank wasn't an option either, as there was a hidden statistic in GTO known as [Stability]. Every creature had 100% stability by default. If they did not move from a spot that others were trying to move through, they would lose some stability each time. When their stability reached 0%, they would become partially incorporeal, where others could move through their area without issue.

Stability would regenerate over time at the same rate as mana, 1% per minute. 1% was also the minimum amount of stability one would lose when someone else tried to move through their blocked space.

In essence, body blocking the zombies was hopeless.

Even Pickapart would be of little use against the hordes of undead with her AoEs, as they were totally immune to damage from the Dark element!

Thanks to Chan Si's party's low level, they at least did not need to deal with various other threats during the quest, such as exploding zombies, climbing zombies, long-tongued grappling zombies, or in the worst case, flying zombies. These sorts of extra threat varieties were meant to keep the quest challenging for the large variety of [Skills] available to higher leveled players. If they were pitted against a party of level 28 characters, it wouldn't matter if Chan Si could create five more characters, she would still lose.

There were two ways to succeed at the quest. The first was to survive for thirty minutes whiles the priests consecrated the area - though this would take longer if any priests died, and the quest would be a failure if they all died.

The second option was to ignore the intended tower defense, pushing through the zombie hordes to attack the Boss reanimating them, the [Nectar-mad Lich].

Fighting one's way to the boss was harder than the defending the area, not even counting the boss fight itself. The advantage of this strategy was only for the very high levels where the priests were outclassed by the special zombies and would die too quickly.

Originally, Chan Si had planned to accomplish the quest through the first method.

However, she recently formulated a new solution.

When Gearme was done placing the walls, rather than using them to defend the area, he had created a vertical tower high in the air. The base of the tower was built from the walls, and there was also a makeshift ramp winding the way up the sides for getting to the top of the tower.

At the top of the tower, Gearme placed his ‘defense point’. It was one of several possible unique items for use in the quest only, and Chan Si had selected it over the other options. The defense point would tie the Ballista to a particular spot, but in exchange they would receive a large attack speed buff.

It was considered one of the poorest choices for the quest, as the advantage was too small in comparison to others. Not being able to move wasn't the worst trade-off since the Ballista would be unlikely to want to move anyway, but even if the attack speed buff offered was doubled it still would not be enough to overcome the challenges of the quest.

Naturally, Chan Si had a use for it.

After placing the defense point and being bound to it, Gearme shouted down to the NPCs of the quest to come to the top of the tower, on the platform hosting his defense point.

They obeyed.

Chan Si's other characters also arrived. In the end, everyone - her characters, the mercanaries, and the priests - was gathered on a platform high in the air.

“Start consecration,” Gearme ordered.

The priests chanted!

The sky rumbled!

The lich laughed!

Far away, the Nectar-mad Lich raised his boney hands. Chan Si's characters could barely see him through the mist thanks to the vision buffs applied to Gearme.

A flood of nectar poured from the lich's skull.

The nectar permeated the graveyard in an instant, seeping into the earth. Into the graves.

Countless zombies burst out from underground and shambled towards the tower, moaning for flesh.

Plague of Undeath had truly begun!

===

“That group of noobs must be stupid,” remarked the human Ballista [Howardthedark] as he watched outside the quest area. “They don't know that even if you give them a path, regular zombies will refuse to approach vertically, and destroy the tower instead.”

The female Lizardfolk Mountain Shaman [Kristiekakes] lazily responded as she lay atop her pet wolf, “At least we won't need to wait on them to try the quest again ourselves." Her two pet vultures circled overhead. “How far away are the others with our supplies?”

A third player, a very large Bearkin [Terror Mage] named [Obligatorybearpun] replied, “They just left the merchant, so twenty minutes or so. We'll definitely beat the quest this time."

“I hope so," said Howardthedark. “The subclass is really good, but this quest... ah, if only it was as easy as those noobs think it is." He pointed at the Nectar-mad Lich not too far away from him. “Even if they found some way to attack this guy from far away, he would still kick their ass."

“Like he did ours?” Kristiekakes laughed.

“At least we know the right strategy. We just need to copy what the pros did more precisely," Howardthedark said.

“Zombies destroying the base of the tower,” reported Obligatorybearpun.

Howardthedark nodded. “They're dead meat.”

The zombies smashed through the brittle base that barely held up the makeshift tower. It began to fall.

Then, the remaining portion of the tower zoomed through the air at an incredibly high speed!

“What?!” all three onlookers exclaimed.

The tower smashed to pieces directly in front of the Nectar-mad Lich.

===

At the top of the tower, the very moment it began to fall, Gearme activated his ring, which in turn activated The Red and Purple Mushroom on a String.

Due to being welded to the spot, the jump wasn't capable of acting as normal, and in fact the tower began to fall faster as a result.

However, at the same moment, Ulna used her Palm Push, followed by Lift.

The Palm Push movement was also not able to work properly on Gearme.

But once Ulna used Lift, although she could not actually lift Gearme due to him being stuck to the spot, it still applied the combined movement to her, causing her to shoot backwards!

However, because she was holding onto Gearme, there was a contradiction!

Gearme could not move from the spot, being welded at the top of the tower. Ulna was being moved against her will, hurtling back at a very high speed. Ulna's movement replaced Gearme's due to Lift, but Gearme couldn't move from the top of the tower, even though he had to because of the effect of Lift!

Thus, the freefalling tower moved with him, flying through the air!

Right before the distance of the movement would end, Ulna ended her Lift, meaning the tower was still traveling at a very high speed thanks to the momentum effects necessary for things like the tower falling to work.

Chan Si's party, along with the group of NPCs, hurtled through the air before the tower smashed apart in front of the boss, which Ulna had angled to be directly behind her.

The Nectar-mad Lich dripped amber liquid menacingly as it summoned more zombies around itself.

This would be a tough boss fight.

That was, if Chan Si did not have a group of fifty mercenaries and anti-undead priests on her side.

The priests were out outside of the area to be consecrated, so they had nothing else to do but join in the fight!

===

Zombie limbs flew left and right as the NPCs unleashed their combined fury on the undead. Bolts of light cut the undead in twain, and the mercenaries pushed through to deliver their own attacks with swords and hammers. The Nectar-mad Lich's health rapidly dropped even as it retreated, trying to put distance between itself and the group, only to be pulled back in by Pickapart's Reaching Shadow!

Now, the boss was the one surrounded!

The trio of players that had failed the quest themselves watched this in disbelief.

Kristiekakes' big lizard eyes were glued to the scene of carnage as she struggled to find words.

“This, how?” Howardthedark muttered.

Obligatorybearpun was shadowboxing in excitement. “Get 'em!”

The Nectar-mad Lich shifted tactics from summoning to spellslinging, beams of black light flying out from its fingertips, killing the NPCs as quickly as it could. Every time it casted a spell, one to three would die. Piles of ash began to build, the only remnants of those brave fighters.

===

Meanwhile, Chan Si's group was taking potshots at the boss without drawing aggro.

No matter how powerful the boss was, it did not have infinite health, and in the end could only die miserably against the onslaught of fearless npcs. It howled at the unfairness as its bones melted into nectar.

With that, Gearme completed the Plague of Undeath quest!

Only a handful of NPCs had survived, including Priestess Jelthea.

“Thank you, brave hero! You've defeated the terrible evil!" she exclaimed as she ran towards Gearme, arms wide open to hug him.

An oversized arrow from Gearme pierced through her, killing her instantly, and the rest of Chan Si's group piled on to kill the last of the NPCs.

After all, Chan Si had already unlocked the Corpse Launcher subclass, so the only use for those remaining NPCs was loot.